


The Secret Marriage

by blythechild



Series: Love Bingo [5]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Coming Out, Established Relationship, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Revelations, Secret Marriage, Secret Relationship, Tattoos, Wedding Rings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-06
Updated: 2013-05-06
Packaged: 2017-12-10 15:10:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blythechild/pseuds/blythechild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotch has a new ring, Reid has a new tattoo, and everyone is wondering about everyone else's secrets.</p><p> </p><p>This is a work of fanfiction and as such I do not claim ownership over any of the characters herein. It was created as a personal amusement. This story is suitable for all audiences.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Secret Marriage

**Author's Note:**

> This is just straight-up, bullpen fluff with a big group hug at the end.

Hotch and Reid had been carpooling to work for years. Everyone was aware that Reid didn’t like driving in D.C., though whether this was due to lack of skill or lack of interest no one could decide. After his separation, Hotch rented an apartment that was conveniently closer to Reid’s place and, since he was already shuttling Jack all over the city, it wasn’t much of a stretch to include Reid in the carpool. No one questioned the logic or even remarked on the oddity of a unit chief offering such a service to a subordinate 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, in perpetuity. It was just part of the slightly skewed reality of life at the BAU and the ties that bound them all together. So, when Hotch and Reid arranged to take the same dates off for their annual mandatory leaves, no one batted an eyelash at it. God knows that Morgan was relieved that he wouldn’t have to fill in for Hotch as Reid’s glorified chauffer; getting to Reid’s place was a real pain in the ass…

J.J. noticed it first. During their first post-vacation case she spotted Hotch wearing a wedding band again.

“Do you think he’s okay?” J.J. hushed with concern as she huddled with Prentiss, Rossi, and Morgan in the conference room. “It took him a year to take it off after Haley died… now he’s wearing it again?”

“It’s not the same ring.” Rossi added quickly. Three sets of eyes focused on him all asking the same question. “Listen, I’ve been married three times - I know a thing or two about wedding bands…”

“So, what are you saying, Dave? That Hotch got married and didn’t tell anybody? As if we could _all_ miss the fact that he was dating someone to begin with…” Morgan crossed his arms over his chest and frowned.

“What I’m _saying_ , Morgan, is that Haley’s band was a plain yellow gold. This one is rose gold and hand hammered. Extrapolate what you will from that.”

Rossi hadn’t meant to issue a challenge but Morgan took up the mantle anyway. He watched Hotch closely but couldn’t identify any atypical behaviour. The unit chief was the same quietly serious man that they had all come to expect. The only time that Morgan ever saw Hotch crack a smile was occasionally in Reid’s company; the younger agent had a talent for ridiculous conversations or a completely unpredictable act that broke through Hotch’s emotional lockdown. Morgan decided that if anyone would know about the story behind Hotch’s ring, it would be the boy genius.

The unit had a locker room, but few agents used it. Morgan usually had the place to himself and this fact accounted for the slightly girly noise of surprise that he uttered when Reid burst in one morning muttering ferociously to himself.

“What’s up, kid?” He said, hoping to God that Reid had missed his teenaged girl moment.

“Spilled coffee on myself.” Reid grumbled darkly as he started unbuttoning his dress shirt in front of a locker that Morgan didn’t even know that the younger agent maintained.

“Damn. You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Hey, listen, I’ve been meaning to ask you… Have you noticed anything lately about Hotch? Anything unusual?”

“Like what?”

“Like…”

Morgan’s voice fell away as Reid took off his shirt, balled it up, and stuffed it into his locker. He pulled out a fresh one - still in the dry cleaner’s plastic - and turned to face his colleague with interest.

Reid had a tattoo. 

Suddenly, Morgan was less interested in his boss’s love life and more interested in how much he _didn’t_ know about every member of his team. Reid had _a tattoo?_

“Nice ink.” Morgan pointed to the artwork on Reid’s chest, just over his heart.

“Uh, thanks.” Reid blushed and rubbed the tattoo absently. “It’s new.”

It was a ringed circle, the edges expertly detailed and shadowed so that it appeared to be almost three-dimensional sitting atop Reid’s chest. Inside the circle was a passage rendered in small, spidery script:

_Dû bist mîn, ich bin dîn:_  
 _des solt dû gewis sîn;_  
 _dû bist beslozzen in mînem herzen,_  
 _verlorn ist daz slüzzelîn:_  
 _dû muost och immer darinne sîn._

Morgan was at a loss. He didn’t understand German and didn’t think that Reid did either.

“Why’d you get it?” He asked hoping for more clarity.

“Oh,” Reid smiled and shrugged into his clean shirt. “I’ve never liked the feel of metal against my skin.”

Morgan blinked. Ya, _that_ cleared things right up for him.

“So, what were you saying about Hotch?” Reid buttoned up the shirt.

“Something’s different about him.” Morgan mumbled, his mind still trying to figure out the tattoo.

“Oh, you mean the ring.” Reid said matter-of-factly as he retied his tie and closed his locker. “That’s new too.”

Reid smiled, turned on his heel and walked out of the locker room leaving Morgan more confused than ever and in serious doubt of his prowess as a trained FBI profiler. Confused and skirting the edges of a mystery, Morgan decided to get a second opinion; he found Prentiss in the staff kitchen.

“Hey, did you know that Reid has a tattoo?”

“No way!” Prentiss’s eyes widened and then a wicked grin broke out across her. “Is it a little heart with ‘Mom’ written over it? Or maybe ‘If found, please contact the FBI’…”

Morgan rolled his eyes and then started writing on a napkin next to the coffee pot. “You’re a riot, Emily.”

“I know. It can’t be helped.” She leaned in closer. “So, where does he have it? None of us have seen it… what were _you_ doing that you got a private showing, huh?”

“Hey, he’s my brother by a different mother, okay Prentiss?” Morgan gave her a dirty look.

“That’s one weird-ass family tree, Derek…” Prentiss chuckled but raised her hands in surrender.

“Whatever. You speak German, don’t you?”

“Yeah, why?”

Morgan handed her the napkin. “This is what Reid’s tattoo said. What does it mean?”

Prentiss stared and then her brow furrowed in confusion. “Are you sure that this is right?”

“I may have messed up the accents but that’s the gist of it. Why?”

Prentiss shrugged and shook her head. “He’s a dark horse, our Reid…”

“What does it _say_?”

“It says: _‘You are mine, I am yours; you may be sure of this. You’ve been locked inside my heart, the key has been thrown away: within it, you must always stay’_.”

Prentiss handed the napkin back to Morgan with a serious expression. “So, who is he in love with?”

Morgan stared blankly at Prentiss, the napkin drooping from his fingertips. How could he have been so clueless? Maybe he would have to take some refresher courses on reading non-verbal cues… He shook his head slowly.

“He said it was new… just like Hotch’s ring…”

It took Prentiss a moment, but then she was right there with him, her eyes widening in surprise. “No way…”

“If you think it through, it makes a weird sort of sense.” Morgan mumbled. “When do any of us have enough free time to date an outsider?”

“But Hotch? He’s always seemed like sort of a hard Kinsey One to me. I mean, there was Haley and he was devoted to her, ya know?”

“Hotch has always played things pretty close to the vest and there’s no denying that he’s overly protective of Reid ever since Hankel took him. Plus, have you noticed that sometimes only the kid can make him see reason?”

“Well, sure. But there’s all of that, and then there’s… _a relationship_. That’s a pretty large leap, Morgan.”

“What’s a large leap?”

Prentiss and Morgan both jumped as J.J. suddenly appeared in the kitchen with an empty mug.

“J.J., did you know that Reid has a tattoo?” Prentiss arched an eyebrow.

“Seriously?” She stopped pouring her coffee and stared at them. “What is it?”

“It’s a wedding band. Over his heart.” Morgan paused for effect.

J.J.’s face went blank for a moment and then her expression was replaced with one of perfect awe. “Wow. And we all missed that…”

“Yeah.” Prentiss huffed.

“I gotta say that my professional ego feels like it just got its ass kicked.” Morgan griped as he took a swig of coffee.

“Who kicked your ass?”

Everyone looked up and saw Reid staring at them, his oversized travel mug dangling from one hand.

“Whoa. It seems like the kitchen is the place to be this morning. Is there a prize in the bottom of the coffee pot or something?” Reid’s face was a mask of innocence.

“Spence,” J.J. stepped forward and looked him down with that sisterly manner that she had honed over the years. “Did you and Hotch… get _married_ during your annual leave?”

Everyone expected a stammering, emphatic denial. But Reid just rolled up onto the balls of his feet and back again with a small smile.

“Yep.”

Morgan, Prentiss and J.J. all stood with various questions frozen on their faces. Reid watched them for a few seconds before he ducked his head and chuckled quietly.

“C’mon guys, you’re telling me that none of you had any suspicions over the years?”

“ _Years?!_ ” Morgan stood up a little straighter.

“Umm, yeah.” Reid looked guilty for the first time. “It wasn’t really serious until after the divorce was finalized. Aaron has some pretty hard and fast views about monogamy. I told him that the jewelry would set you all off… it was the ring, wasn’t it?” 

They all nodded in unison. Reid started playing with his mug nervously. Their shock seemed to be less amusing to him now.

“It’s a relief to finally admit it. After a certain point, it seemed wrong to keep it all a secret… I mean, in the beginning it was fun… sort of titillating actually…”

Reid looked up and then away while his friends continued to stare at him. A blush crept across his features as he realized that he had inadvertently given them too much information.

“Umm, but… in the end, you guys are our family and we should have told you. I wanted you all to be there but Aaron wanted it to be private.” Reid sighed. “He’s had a harder time… coming to grips with it… coming out… it’s an ongoing process, I guess.”

“But he _married_ you. He’s wearing a ring for chrissakes…” Prentiss’s face was a mix of sympathy and confusion. “How did he think that it would go unnoticed?”

“Don’t ask me.” Reid said a little too quickly. “This is an old argument for us - I’m tired of fighting it, to be honest. I think… I think that wearing the ring was his way of telling everyone about us. He probably thinks that that’s all he has to say and everyone will just accept it.”

Reid looked worriedly at all of them. “You will accept it, won’t you?”

“C’mon kid.” Morgan walked forward and grabbed Reid into a hug. “Why would you even ask that? You’re two of my favorite people.”

“And he makes you happy, right?” Prentiss stepped up and whispered.

“We… we make each other happy.” Reid was staring at his ratty sneakers again.

“Oh my God…” J.J. keened and then she and Prentiss wrapped themselves around Reid in a female bear hug. Morgan rolled his eyes a little but he had to admit that Reid’s nervous admission lit something quiet and warm within him. _I won’t have to worry about him anymore. Or Hotch. They’re taken care of._

Garcia suddenly appeared and blinked at the display. “I’ve missed something here.”

J.J. mumbled something unintelligible into Reid’s shirt that ended in ‘married’, which only caused Garcia more confusion. Her eyebrows rose over her pink rhinestone glasses at Morgan.

“Honeybear, explain _this_.” She gestured in large circles towards the group hug that was threatening to swallow Reid.

“Hotch and Reid got married over their vacation.”

“Holy Christmas!” She exclaimed and then turned to face the besieged Reid. “Boy Wonder, is this true?”

“Yeah, but it was supposed to be a secret.”

“But why would you want to keep it secret, hon?” She whispered after a moment. “We’re your family, baby boy - there isn’t any judgment here…”

“It’s for Hotch.” Prentiss said over Reid’s shoulder. 

“But-”

“Baby Girl, you know how private Hotch is.” Morgan interrupted before Garcia got wound up. “If this is the way he needs it to be, I say we give it to him.”

Morgan turned back to Reid. “If you’re okay with that, I mean…”

“You’d pretend that you didn’t know?” Reid asked in disbelief.

“No, but we’d do what you suggested: accept the ring as his declaration and just move on without discussing it. But only so long as you’re cool with it, kid.”

Reid lit up with a big, goofy grin and then nodded with relief. “You know, maybe you could stop calling me kid… now that I’m married and all…”

Morgan smirked and shook his head, no, as Garcia piled onto the suffocating girl hug. Reid was being a good sport about it - and the girls liked hugging him whenever possible - but Morgan was a few seconds away from stepping in and rescuing him when Hotch walked past the kitchen on his way to the conference room. He stood still for a moment taking in the scene with his traditional scowl.

“What’s going on here?”

Everyone froze. Morgan tried to come up with something logical but all he could think was _why aren’t we all better at lying than this?_ Suddenly, Garcia popped forward with a solution.

“We just inducted Reid into the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” The benefit of being so consistently bizarre was that it was difficult to tell when Garcia was lying.

Hotch’s scowl became deeply confused and finally he just said ‘Oh’ and shrugged like it was a plausible scenario. 

“There are some additional details on the case that I just received from the Sacramento field office - would you all join me in the conference room again before we leave?”

Everyone nodded and Hotch turned on his heel without another thought. They all breathed out slowly.

“Nice one, P.” Morgan winked at Garcia.

“What’s the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?” Reid mumbled as they all collected their mugs and headed to the conference room again. “You know that he’s going to ask me about it later…”

“You don’t wanna know, kid.” Morgan laughed and clapped Reid on the shoulder as they walked.

 

So no one asked and the secret remained so for only one of them. A few months later when they all had a meal together after a case and Hotch casually draped his arm around Reid’s shoulders, the conspirators shared a smile as they watched the door to Hotch’s world switch from closed to open.


End file.
